1944 and all that
The star of this film is the music, composed by Lorne Balfe. I really liked it, which was just as…
The better angels of our nature
Late one afternoon, early in the year, I was walking through the Vatican Stanze with a small group of critics…
Detroit spinner
When techno first appeared amid the urban wasteland of mid-1980s Detroit, its futuristic sound palette was inspired by the whirring…
Making history
‘History is not the past,’ says the writer Hilary Mantel in the first of her Reith Lectures on Radio 4…
Never knowingly understated
At one uncharacteristically low-key point in Sunday’s Poldark — back for a third series on BBC1 — Ross (Aidan Turner)…
Alt-hate
At the start of the year, a Facebook friend messaged me, telling me that she and a chum had been…
Hands off our Ruth
At last, there is light in the north. The long Scottish Tory winter has finally ended, giving way to the…
Corbyn copy
Since the election, Jeremy Corbyn has been parading himself as prime-minister-in-waiting. ‘Cancellation of President Trump’s State Visit is welcome,’ he…
The Macron miracle
Paris While Theresa May flounders in a mess of her own making, Emmanuel Macron is striding out on to the…
Fad diets are just junk
Why do we do it? We really need to stop supporting the snake-oil industry. We know there is no such…
Oceans apart
Readers of The Spectator will be familiar with the argument that climate change, like Britpop, ended in 1998. Raised on…
The Maybot 3000
Had Theresa May won the election with the landslide she expected, she’d have fired several of the cabinet with her…
Party piece
The National Theatre could hardly resist Barber Shop Chronicles. The play shines a light on a disregarded ethnic community, black…
Who needs jihad?
Citizens of New World nations – North and South America, Australia and New Zealand – invariably assume that anyone settling…
Song for Europe
In Competition No. 3002 you were invited to provide lyrics to the European anthem. The anthem has as its…
to 2311: Keith II
The unclued lights, as well as KEITH, are Scottish place names. TARBERT was required at 28A, rather than LARBERT. First prize Una…
Dear Mary
Q. Having retired, my husband is now an enthusiastic observer of the goldfinches, greenfinches and bullfinches in our garden. Their…
In praise of neigh-sayers
Wallace Stevens gave us ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’. The German scholar Ulrich Raulff, in this meaty book…
Uncorking the past
I have been thinking about the Dark Ages. This has nothing to do with Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn. A…
Travelling hopefully
Olga Tokarczuk examines questions of travel in our increasingly interconnected and fast-moving world. The award-winning Polish writer channels her wanderlust…
Sisters in scandal
In our age of elasticated leisurewear, ready meals and box sets on telly, it is exhilarating to read about people…
Sheen of authenticity
In 2006, after five decades, Shaun Greenhalgh lost his enthusiasm for the British Museum. From a very early age, he…
Nazis and the dark arts
When he came to power Hitler had a dowser scour the Reich Chancellery for cancerous ‘death rays’. Before flying to…
Ever decreasing circles
‘The area’s isolation has given it a strong sense of community and independence,’ runs the Wikipedia entry on New Addington.…
Take heart
In this magnificent book, Thomas Morris provides us with a thoughtful, engaging and rigorous account of how cardiac surgeons through…
